Salvatore: a Dark Mafia Romance (5 page)

“Obedience is what I’ll have,” I said. “I don’t mind teaching it to you. Remember what I said last night?”

She tried the door, jiggling the handle.

I smiled at her muttered curse.

“If you betray me, I’ll punish you. This will be your first punishment.”

* * *

I
left
her to stew while I showered. She’d fooled me with that kiss. I’d thought she felt it too, thought she liked it. I think she had, at first. But then, maybe her own sense of duty made her attack.

Regardless, I grinned as I pulled on a pair of jeans. The thought of punishing her aroused me.

Drying my hair roughly with a towel, I went to the door between our rooms and turned the key in the lock on my side. Lucia sat on her bed, her hair wet from a shower, dressed in a pair of shorts and a silk tank, her knees tucked against her chest, a letter opener in her hand held like a knife. The look on her face told me of her shock to see me enter from this door. I locked the door behind me and pocketed the keys.

Her eyes raked over me, from the top of my wet head to my bare feet. I wore only a pair of jeans, wanting her to see what she was up against. I stood a foot taller than her and outweighed her by probably seventy-five pounds. I wouldn’t hurt her, but I wasn’t above a little intimidation. It would be good for her to learn her place and learn it fast.

When I stepped toward her, she got up on her knees in the middle of the bed and pointed the letter opener at me.

“Put that down.”

She shook her head. “What are you going to do?”

I stalked closer. “I said put it down.” I didn’t give her a choice this time. Instead, when she scrambled backward on the bed, I placed one knee on top of it and caught her wrist, dragging her down on her belly until I relieved her of her weapon, tossing it away. I released her. She climbed back up on her knees and glared at me.

“Get undressed, Lucia.”

“No.”

“Come on. I’ve seen it all before. You showed me last night, remember?”

She jumped off the other side of the bed. I liked this. Always liked cat and mouse.

“Go away, Salvatore.”

“Strip, Lucia.”

She’d cornered herself by now, but I gave her space to bolt, just because I didn’t like the game to end too quickly. She ducked under my arm and did just as I knew she would. I turned, watching her try the door.

“Leave me alone!”

“Where are you going to go?” I asked, following her as she ran to retrieve the letter opener. I have to admit, she was faster than I thought, but I caught her around the middle and squeezed her wrist, taking the weapon from her a second time.

“Please leave me alone. Please.”

“What would be the fun in that?”

“I hate you! I hate you!”

With her back to me, she shoved against me, but I had her locked in my embrace. She was trapped. We both knew it. “I’ll tell you how this is going to go. I’m going to release you, and you’re going to do as you’re told and strip. Once you’re naked, I’ll take it from there.”

“I’m sorry, okay?”

I shook my head. “No, not okay.” I grinned a wicked grin, my cock hard already at her back, growing harder with anticipation.

“What are you going to do?”

“I haven’t decided yet.”

She glanced back at me, and I knew she felt me pressing against her back. She couldn’t not feel my hardness.

“I’m not going to fuck you.” From the look on her face, I surprised both of us with that. But it needed to be said. Hell, she had every right to be afraid of me.

I eased up, giving her a little space. “Do as you’re told, and I’ll go easy on you, but if you make me strip you, your punishment will be worse, understand?”

After a moment, she nodded.

I released her, this time tucking the letter opener into a nightstand drawer. I took a seat on the chair at her desk and watched while she stripped off her clothes layer by layer, first her blouse, then the white shorts. She wore a matching set of white lace panties and bra beneath.

“Go on, Lucia.”

She unhooked her bra and let it fall to the floor, that look of innocence now replaced by the same thing I’d seen last night: defiance.

That was good. I preferred defiant.

I’d work that out of her. Slowly, though. No sense in rushing the fun.

I waited for her to slide off her panties. Then she stood before me naked, her hands fisted at her sides.

“Come here.”

Reluctantly, she walked over to me. I took her hips in my hands and looked her over, my gaze on her breasts, those nipples hardening beneath my perusal, the slight hint of arousal making the air musky.

I swallowed and rose to my feet, my hands moving up to her waist. She remained where she stood, turning her face up to keep her eyes on mine.

I walked her to the bed, sitting her on it when the backs of her knees hit it. “Lie back, and open your legs.”

She stared up at me, and I worked my knees between hers, widening them a little, keeping my gaze locked on hers.

“I told you I’m not going to fuck you. I just want to see. Now lie back, Lucia.”

She did, slowly, watching me as I took her in. I knelt between her legs. She let me spread them and presented me with the beautiful sight of her pussy opening to me, the pink lips glistening, gaping, her clit swollen.

She was aroused.

I inhaled deeply, my cock ready to tear free from my jeans. I pressed one hand against her chest, covering a breast with my palm so I could hold her down as well as play with the nipple. I brought my mouth to her, felt her gaze on the top of my head as I dragged my tongue along her length, the sound of her sucking in a breath music to my ears. Her hands came to my head, and she pushed then pulled.

I looked up. “Spread your arms out to the sides.”

She obeyed, and I dipped my head back down to her pussy. She tasted as good as I imagined. Better. Fuck. She thrust herself against me, her cunt dripping as I sucked her clit, then licked her length, dipping my tongue inside her.

She moaned, twisting her body. I looked at her face while I worked the tight little nub. She squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lip. I circled my tongue around the clit, and she opened her eyes, her face flushing pink when our gazes locked. I took her clit in my mouth, watching her, making her watch me until I brought her to orgasm, holding her thighs wide as she bucked beneath me, her hands on the back of my head now, pulling me tight to her until she was spent and begging me to stop, to release her.

“Too much.”

I grinned. “This is the punishment part,” I said, holding her down and eating her pussy again, making her come twice more, hearing her beg me to go on, plead with me to stop, all while I sucked that clit and licked every drop of juice from her cunt until I couldn’t take any more.

I rose to stand over her, my legs still between hers to keep them spread.

I looked down at her, her hair a tangled wet mess all around her, her face flushed, her limbs limp. I unzipped my jeans. When I did, her eyes went wide, and she startled, scooting backward. I caught her thigh and placed one knee on the bed.

“Stay.”

She made a sound, her forehead furrowing.

“I’m not going to fuck you,” I said again, knowing what she feared. But as I pushed my jeans down and off and began to rub the length of my cock, she stilled, swallowing, her gaze darting from my cock, away, then back. “Watch, Lucia.” She wanted to, I could see it on her face, and somehow, the thought of corrupting her innocence made me harder.

I fucked my fist while she watched, her eyes riveted on my hand working my cock. It turned me the fuck on to have her watch me, and I leaned into her, just touching the head of my cock to her folds, making her gasp and bite her lip.

“Fuck,” I said. “I love how you look at me, Lucia. And I love how you taste. How you come on my tongue.”

“Salvatore,” she started, trying to sit up.

I shook my head. “Lie back.”

She did, and I pumped harder, my cock swelling, the scent of her, of me, filling the room with sex.

“Have you ever seen a man come, Lucia?” I asked, close now.

She met my gaze and shook her head.

“Have you ever had a man’s tongue on your cunt?”

She flushed red and blinked twice before looking away.

“Answer me.”

She held her lower lip between her teeth. “No. I’ve never...” She stopped.

“I’m going to come all over you,” I said, pumping faster, gripping harder. “I’m going to cover you in my cum, and you’re going to wear it all day long, so you know you belong to me.” I jerked, moments away now. “Fuck.”

I blew then, my orgasm coming hard and fast, making me grip one of the posts of her bed to keep upright as I emptied on her, covering her in my cum, watching her face, her eyes, as she took it. And when I finished, I leaned down and rubbed it into her skin, her chest and neck, her belly, her cunt. I then straightened, wiped my hand on her thigh, and pulled my jeans back on. Lucia sat up and looked down at herself for a moment.

“Get dressed,” I said, buttoning my jeans. “Breakfast is ready.”

“I need a shower.”

I shook my head. “Like I said, you’ll wear it all day.” I slapped her hip twice. “Let’s go. I’m suddenly ravenous.”

I
hated him
.

Salvatore sat across from me with a huge grin on his face, chomping on a piece of sausage. I tore my bread into pieces and glared at him. He was gloating. Fucking gloating.

“I hate you.”

I hated myself more. How could I have done what he said? How in hell had I enjoyed it? He’d made me come three times. Three times! I’d felt… Fuck, what had I felt for him? The man had made me come, that was all. Any feelings were physical. Sexual.

“You liked me just fine a little while ago.” He bit into a piece of Nutella-smeared toast, a little of the chocolate paste sticking to the side of his mouth. He wiped it with his thumb then made a show of licking it off his finger.

Frustrated, I grabbed an apple out of the bowl of fruit and threw it at him. He caught it like a baseball and bit into it.

“Thanks.”

I fisted my hands at my sides at this infuriating man. Rainey came by with a pot of coffee.

“More, ma’am?”

“No,” I said, tacking on a “thank you,” as I folded my napkin. I forced myself to take a deep breath. “I’m done.”

She stepped away, nodding, and I made to rise.

“I’ll have more, Rainey,” Salvatore said.

I shoved my chair back, scraping the legs along the hardwood floor.

“Sit, Lucia,” Salvatore said as Rainey poured. She avoided looking at either of us.

“I’m done.” I set my napkin on my plate.

“I said sit.”

His tone made me meet his gaze. He wiped his mouth and pushed his plate back, all joking gone from his expression. For a moment, we battled in silence, me standing, willing my legs to move, the limbs refusing. Him watching me, intently waiting to see what I’d do.

Rainey, who had left with the coffeepot, returned, saw us, and disappeared back into the kitchen. You could slice the tension in the dining room.

Salvatore raised an eyebrow and gestured for me to sit. I thought about my options. I was in his house, in a town I did not know, miles from the next house, without a vehicle.

I sat, folded my arms across my chest, and jutted my chin out.

“Your sister does that.”

“What?”

He stuck his chin out to show me. “Stubborn. I guess it runs in the family.”

I adjusted my position, sitting up straighter, lowering my stupid chin. He was observant, I had to give him that. He must have seen it at my father’s funeral.

“She and I are very different people.”

He raised an eyebrow but apparently decided not to pursue it. He shifted his position, pushing his chair back and folding one leg over the other. He took up a lot of space. Too much.

“Let’s go over the rules of the house now that you’re finally here.”

I waited in silence. I’d hear him out first. Tell him to go fuck himself after.

That thought took me back to an hour earlier, to him standing over me, his big naked body, his thick cock in his hand pumping, pumping…

I shook my head, forcing the image away, and looked at the floor littered with the bread I’d torn up throughout breakfast. I’d made work for Rainey in my anger at Salvatore. I’d pick it up when we were done.

“First rule, you are not to leave the grounds without my permission, and you are never to go anywhere alone.”

I snorted. “As if.”

“As if what?”

He leaned forward, his expression questioning but also consequential, calling me on my bullshit because he and I both knew I couldn’t leave without A) having a car, and B) knowing the code to open the gate.

“I won’t be treated like a prisoner.” I almost added
in my own home
, but this wasn’t my home.

“It’s not a prison, Lucia. I want you to be safe. I have enemies, like your father did. They may think getting to me is best accomplished through you. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

He sounded almost genuine. He sure looked it. But then again, he’d seemed different earlier too, before he’d used my body’s surrender against me.

“You’re free to wander the grounds. There are several acres of woods, so take care you don’t get lost. The house as well, only my study and my bedroom are off-limits. I’ll show you around once we’re done. If you need or want anything, all you have to do is ask. You’ll have a monthly allowance—”

“I don’t need your money.” I had my own. My family was not poor, even after the Benedetti’s destroyed us. I’d inherited everything but the house after my father died. Although without credit cards, with no way to access that money as long as I was locked away here, I was still at Salvatore’s mercy.

“Well, you’ll have it anyway.”

“I don’t want it,” I muttered.

“What are you doing, Lucia? What exactly is going through your mind right now?”

“I’m trying to wrap my brain around my new prison. First, you send me away to the fucking nuns for five years—”

“It was part of the agreement—”

“I may as well have been behind bars, and you know it!”

He just shrugged a shoulder.

“Now I’m sitting here in
your
house, where I’m supposed to live as your—what? Plaything?—and I’m being told the rules like I’m a child!”

“Aren’t you? Look at how you talk to me. I’m not an unreasonable man, Lucia, but I will be obeyed.”

“Obeyed? You want me to bow down to you? You’ve got another thing coming.”

“I think I have a pretty good idea of what I have coming.”

“Are we done?”

“No.”

I bit my lip, waiting.

“I have a cell phone arriving for you today—”

“I have my own.”

His jaw tightened, and he took a minute before responding. “Well, you’ll have a new one. When you want your family or a friend to visit, you’ll let me know first.”

“I don’t need to see my family, and I don’t have any friends, so I’m well and truly yours. I guess that makes you happy.”

“It doesn’t, actually.”

Why did he have to seem so fucking genuine?

It was my turn to shrug a shoulder and, needing to break eye contact, I leaned down to pick up a few pieces of the bread I’d inadvertently scattered.

“Leave it. Rainey will clean it up.”

I shook my head, feeling tears building, refusing to let him see.

“Leave it, Lucia. When I’m talking to you, I expect your undivided attention.”

I snorted, wiping my face, angry again. I faced him. “You expect so many things. Maybe what you need to do is check those expectations. You’re less likely to be disappointed then.”

His eyes narrowed, and his chest heaved as he took a deep breath in.

“Am I irritating you, Salvatore? Because you know what’s irritating me? Your…stuff…drying on my skin,” I said through clenched teeth. I stood so fast, I knocked the chair over behind me. “You’ve told me your rules. Well, fine. I have just one of my own. Leave. Me. Alone!” I turned on my heel to march off.

“Sit back down,” he hissed. “Now.”

“
Fuck.
You.
I’m going to take a shower.”

I heard his chair scrape back, and I started to run for the stairs, all the while wondering what the hell I was doing. Where I was going. He had the key to the lock. It’s not like I could hide. What was I doing?

Salvatore caught up with me. I didn’t even really fight him when he took my arm and dragged me up the stairs with him.

“You want a shower? Fine,” he said through clenched teeth. “I’ll take you to have that fucking shower if my
stuff
is so
irritating
.”

“Let me go.”

He hauled me to my bedroom and into the bathroom. There he released me. I backed into a corner, his fury suddenly frightening.

“Get in the shower,” he said, reaching for the collar of my blouse and tearing it down the middle.

I screamed, trying to push him back, knowing it was impossible.

“You wanted a shower.”

“I’ll do it,” I said as he popped the buttons off my shorts and yanked the zipper down. “Please. Just—”

“In the shower!”

He shoved me into the shower, even though I still wore my bra and panties.

“Let me go. I’ll do it, I promise.” He stopped and brought his face within an inch from mine.

“You don’t have to promise. I know you’ll do it.”

He switched on the water, and I recoiled from the cool spray that hit one side of my arm.

Tears burned my eyes, and I cursed the drops that fell.

“Take off your bra and panties,” he said, pushing his hand through his hair as he stepped back.

“I will. Just go, okay. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed you.”

His breath was audible, his lips tight, the look on his face telling me he was trying hard to get himself under control.

“I have to pee. Let me pee.” I tried, hoping that would convince him to leave. Using that moment to reason with him. “I’m sorry, okay?”

Some battle raged behind his eyes, and next thing I knew, he had me shoved against the shower wall, one hand wrapped around my throat. I grabbed his forearm, trying to pull him off. He reached over and switched off the water, drenching one side of his T-shirt in the process.

“Piss.”

“Wh…what?”

With his wet hand, he pushed my panties down to midthigh. “Piss.”

“Salvatore…”

“Fucking. Piss. You want me to leave you alone? I will. But first, you piss.”

We stood staring at each other, his eyes dark with anger, mine, maybe the look of a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming Mack truck? I didn’t know what to do, whether or not to try to reason with him. I didn’t know him. That fact well and truly hit me for the first time, right here, right now. He was the son of a mafia boss next in line to succeed him. I’d seen he was armed at my father’s funeral. This man knew violence, it was his world. What horrors had his eyes seen? What atrocities had his hands committed?

In this moment, he was truly and utterly terrifying.

I let my arms fall to my sides, no longer fighting against tears, and I did what he said. I pissed. He glanced down for a second, then returned his gaze to mine. As warmth trailed down my legs, he released his hold around my throat and stepped back, blinking as if coming out of a stupor, shaking his head. I slid down and sat on the shower floor, watching him as he looked at me, the rage all but dissipated now, as if evaporated into thin air, replaced by…remorse?

Salvatore walked out of the bathroom, and I heard the bedroom door close. I rose and started the shower, stripped off the rest of my clothes, and stood under the warm flow, weeping, a sense of loss so all encompassing, so whole, it physically hurt.